With two days off before the quarterfinals, it’s an opportune time to take stock of the top performers of South Africa 2010 so far. The team lines up in the widely used 4-3-2-1 ‘Christmas tree’ formation with no more than two players from one nation. Here are my picks:
Julio Cesar
Salcido, Mertesacker, Pique, Maicon
Kuyt, Mascherano, Oezil
Villa, Messi
Suarez
Honorable mention: Sneijder, Forlan, and Gyan
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16 replies on “World Cup All-Stars 1.0”
Eduardo
Maicon Lugano Lucio Coentrao
Ziani Xavi Robben
Messi Ozil
Forlan
in a 4-2-3-1 formation with no more than 2 from each team:
kingson
maicon, lucio, carvalho, coentrao
schweinsteiger, annan
villa, özil, messi
forlan
Forlan, Suarez, Fabiano
Özil, Xavi Alonso, Robben
Salcido, Lucio, Mertesacker, Sergio Ramos
Eduardo
4/3-3/5-3/5 with Alonso going box to box and everyone else:
Attack, attack, attack!
I never rated Sergio Ramos at Real but he has looked terrific.
Benched for being 3 from the same team: Klose, Villa
After ‘Henry Gate’ in the qualifiers, I’m taking the moral highground and naming an Irish player in my team. In the interests of boosting my team’s entertainment/comedy quotient I’m also selecting John Terry.
Given
Maicon, Mertesacker, Terry, Lahm
Mascherano, Alonso (shame on you Benitez for breaking up this partnership at Liverpool)
Messi, Ozil, Villa
Higuain
Like Rodney and Stefan, I too was impressed with Fábio Coentrão, the 22-year-old Benfica/Portugal left back. I watched him handle Maicon last week and last night did reasonably well against the formidable Spanish front line.
I like the 4-3-2-1.
Julio Cesar
Maicon, Lucio, Pique, Coentrão,
Mascherano, Sneijder, Ayew
Messi, Ozil,
Forlan
Sorry Peter, no Italians made it.
4-3-3 for me, Bielsa-style.
Enyeama
Maicon, Carvalho, Skrtel, Tanaka
Mascherano, Dos Santos, Iniesta
Messi, Villa, Müller
Kingson
Salcido, Mertesacker, Juan, Maicon
Kuyt, Xabi Alonso, Oezil
Villa, Messi
Higuain
There have been several stars who have done well, such as Xavi, Villa, Sneijder, and Messi, but I am impressed by lesser known players who have shown that they can rise ro rthe occassion and especially goalie Vincent Enyeama of Nigeria and Ozil of Germany. I would also like to include someone from Paraguay.
What about a coach? Domenech? But first we will have to check his astrological charts to see if it is a good time. He is an Aquarius and dislikes Scorpios which means he would have not selected Van Basten and Van der Sar.
Alon
What about an all-worst WC team….?
And all we do is combine England, Italy and France…..Domenech to coach, Berlusconi as team manager, Rooney as captain, Evra as spokesman and Terry as WAG liason officer.
As per Rodney’s suggestion, here’s a World Cup Worst 11 using England, Italy and France players:
Green
Evra, Cannavaro, Terry, Zambrotta,
De Rossi, Toulalan, Diaby, Lampard
Rooney, Gilardino
Coach: Domenech
4-4-1-1
—-Enyeama—-
Maicon——–Carvalho——Lucio——-Lahm
Ozil———–Xabi Alonso—Mascherano—–Robben
———————————————–David Villa—–
—————————Higuaín—————————-
Bench: Lugano, Honda, Sneijder, Bradley, Forlan
Paston
Maicon, Pique, Lucio, Von Bronkhorst
Moeller, Van Bommel, Sneijder
Messi
Villa, Luis Fabiano
Coach: Tabarez
Subs:
Muslera, Carvalho, Mascherano, Bradley, Gyan
Notes:
Cesar would be my keeper – if he’d had much to do.
Moeller – not as sexy as Ozil, but 3 goals and 3 assists
Van Bommel – more tackles at this World cup than anyone
Trust Bolla to suggest a worst team!
Here goes:
Green
Cha Jong-Hyok, Cannavaro, Terry, Moore
Enoh, Makoun, Modise
Gouvou, Heskey, Gilardino
Coach: Domenech; asst. coach: Le Guen
Hey Peter and all,
Just back in the states, and some names for top 11 come to mind; these are all pre-1/4 final.
Keeper: Kinston
Defenders: gotta play as a unit, so it’s gotta be Uruguay’s back four, all together (That’s primarily Lugano, with a varying combo of Victorino, Arevalo, Fucile, Pereira)
Put Alonso in front of them.
Donovan, Forlan, Messi, Villa, Robben
Honorable mentions galore: Kuyt, Snjeder, Tevez, Mascherano, Klose, Ramos, Honda, Coentrao, Skrtel, Lahm,
(hope my spellings are all good).
Kingson, sorry
Enyeama, Maicon, Lugano, Mensah, Lahm, van Bommel, Schweinstiger,Alonso , Sneijder,Forlan, Villa…notable mentions: Muller, Ozil, Kuyt, Busquets, Ramos,